Apparatus and Method for Accessing a Coin Image Compilation

1. A method for electronically trading a graded object comprising the steps of: a) storing a compilation of associated images of a graded object in a database, the images having characteristics permitting details of the graded object upon which the graded object was graded to be viewed on a video display means, and assigning a unique identifying indicia to the graded object in a tamperproof manner; b) connecting the database with a first computer, the first computer being responsive to the identifying indicia for retrieving the compilation; providing to a second computer a description of the Waded object and information related to an owner of the graded object and linking the description to the compilation in the database; d) connecting the first computer with the second computer, the second computer being accessible by at least one potential buyer from a remote terminal connected to the second terminal; and e) providing to the one potential buyer at the remote terminal the description of the graded object and, in response to a request by the one potential buyer, sending selected ones of the images in the compilation from the first computer through the second computer to the remote terminal for viewing by the one potential buyer.

2. The method according to claim 1 including a step of storing a bid on the graded object by the one potential buyer and providing the bid to the owner at another remote terminal connected to the second computer.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein said step a, is performed by assigning a unique URL as the unique identifying indicia.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein said step d) is performed by storing the compilation as hierarchical, tiled, multi-resolution digital images.

5. A coin image compilation system for selectively displaying a plurality of images related to a coin to be visually examined comprising: a host computer; a data storage device operatively connected to said host computer and storing data as a coin image compilation representing a plurality of images related to a an encapsulated coin to be visually examined, said images including a gross image and at least one magnified image associated with each of at least two portions of the gross image, said encapsulated coin being assigned a unique identifying indicia in a tamperproof manner; and a display means connected to said host computer for accessing said stored data whereby when a user inputs requests into said display means, said host computer responds to said requests by sending image data from said data storage device to said display means to display said gross image of said coin in response to a first one of said requests and by sending image data from said data storage device to said display means to display one of said magnified images in response to a second one of said requests.

6. The system according to claim 5 wherein said plurality of images includes an obverse view gross image, a reverse view gross image and a holdered view gross image of said coin and said display means has a plurality of side-by-side viewports and displays said obverse view gross image, said reverse view gross image and said holdered view gross image simultaneously in separate ones of said viewports.

7. The system according to claim 6 wherein said images include a first plurality of images of various degrees of magnification of selected portions of said obverse view gross image and a second plurality of images of various degrees of magnification of selected portions of said reverse view gross image and said display means displays selected ones said magnified images individually in corresponding ones of said viewports.

8. The system according to claim 5 wherein said images are hyperlinked HTML pages.

9. The system according to claim 5 wherein said images are tiled multi-resolution format images.

10. The system according to claim 5 wherein said coin image compilation includes a first plurality of images of various degrees of magnification of selected portions of said obverse view gross image and a second plurality of images of various degrees of magnification of selected portions of said reverse view gross image and said display means displays selected ones of said magnified images individually in corresponding ones of said viewports.

11. The system according to claim 5 wherein said data storage device stores a unique certification number associated with said coin image compilation and whereby when the user inputs said certification number into said host computer, said host computer sends image data from said data storage device to said display means to display an obverse view gross image, a reverse view gross image and a holdered view gross image of said coin associated with said certification number.

12. The system according to claim 5 herein said host computer is an HTTP host computer, said display means is in a remote terminal connected to said host computer through the Internet and including a processor in said HTTP host computer that generates successive dynamic HTML pages on-the-fly from, said data stored in said data storage device and streams said dynamic HTML, pages to said remote terminal as requested by said remote terminal, each said dynamic HTML page representing a different one of said images.